


a living breathing invitation to believe better things

by awkwardspiritanimals



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, I'll add the NPC characters and pairings as they begin to be introduced
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-09-26 11:11:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9893021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardspiritanimals/pseuds/awkwardspiritanimals
Summary: Emon University represented a lot of things for all of them. A new beginning. A chance at a better life, or at least a different one. A change of pace, if nothing else.Finding a family was really the last thing any of them expected.





	1. this is for the lions living in the wiry broke down frames of my friends' bodies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A beginning.

“We don’t owe him anything,” Vax says, and Vex sighs, staring out into the rain.

“It’s a lot of money, Vax.”

“I don’t care! He’s thinks this is about him, about not being as ashamed of us if we have college degrees, like it’s some sort of magic spell.”

“Then why are we even doing it?”

“Because it’s not for him! It’s for us, Vex’ahlia. He’s paying for school, and we’ll figure out how to pay for everything else, like we always have, and once we graduate, the only reason we’ll ever have to talk to him is when we want to visit Velora. And chances are, knowing him, she’ll kick him to the curb at some point as well, and then we’ll really never have to speak to him again.”

He knows that a college degree isn’t actually a guarantee of anything, that at the end of four years they could very much be just as broke and lost as they are now, if not more so, but he needs to believe in something, and right now that something is the power of higher education. Besides, their mother had always wanted them to go to college, which pretty much settles the manner in his mind.

“It is about time he did something besides sigh at us in disappointment.”

“Damn straight. Cheer up, Stubby,” he says, grinning in response to the face his sister makes at the nickname, “We’re going to college.”

\----------

Scanlan goes back to school mostly because he’s bored. Bored of teaching, bored of private lessons, not so much bored of performing as bored of waiting for a group to perform with, one with enough talent and passion and energy to match him. Dr. Dranzel has been pestering him to come back for his master’s since pretty much the day he graduated, and now he’s closing in on thirty with no other plans, so why not?

The answer to this is, of course, undergraduates, and specifically the undergraduates in his recitation group for Dranzel’s History of Rock and Roll class. Scanlan generally tries to avoid judging people’s taste in music, even if everything else is fair game, but the blank looks on their faces while they’re listening to the roots of one of the most influential musical genres of all time are just too much.

He probably would have just stopped having class discussions completely, despite Dranzel’s insistence that they were the most important part of recitation, if it weren’t for Vex and Vax. Scanlan doesn’t understand how the homework can be all that difficult when it’s almost always just  _ listen to these five songs and develop an opinion of any kind _ , but they’re the only two who seem to manage to get it done on a regular basis, and they ask good questions that are usually enough to either get the others involved or take up enough time that he doesn’t feel bad about wrapping up and moving on.

Vex is a finance major and Vax is in business, and he’s good enough at reading people that it doesn’t take long before he figures out that neither of them are particularly passionate about those areas of study, that they had probably been picked to appease someone else. They stop and talk to him after class some days and then most days, and when they realize that his Wednesday open door hours coincide with the free time they’ve got for lunch, they end up eating in his office a lot, glad of the excuse to take a break from the dining halls for at least one meal. He’ll play them songs that expand on the required listening for the week, and Vax steals his chips all the time and Vex always offers to replace them with fruit or cookies that he’s pretty sure that they’re sneaking out of the dining halls.

Scanlan tells himself that it’s an excuse to dig through his music collection and that he’s really just doing his job as their recitation leader to ensure their success in this class. And then one Wednesday Vex is finishing a paper and Vax has a meeting for a group project, and his office feels too quiet and empty without them.

“Shit,” he says to absolutely no one, and then he emails them the cat meme he was going to show them and enjoys actually getting to eat his own damn chips for a change.

Maybe undergraduates aren’t all bad.

\------------

The fifth time she nearly trips over the guy in the hallway trying to get to Scanlan’s office, she decides she has to do something.

“No.”

“Come on, Scanlan. What do you possibly need this much room for? And how did you end up with such a big office all to yourself anyway?” she asks, gesturing at the large, mostly empty space with her banana. Vax was meeting someone from one of his business classes to study for a quiz, so it’s just the two of them for lunch today.

“I have many connections, and I’m very persuasive.” Vex just gives him a  _ look _ until he sighs. “Fine, Dranzel made a mistake in the assignments. But I did talk him out of changing them once he realized his mistake, so it counts.”

“See, you’re supposed to be jammed in here with four other people anyway. Surely  _ one _ couldn’t hurt?”

“He’s got a degree in film studies.”

“You’re getting a graduate degree in  _ music _ .”

“Oh, I’m sorry I don’t measure up to your standards, Miss Finance Major. What I meant is that film majors, as a rule, are weird. And this guy is so weird that the other film studies graduates kicked him out of their office. And then he decided to make the hallway his new office.”

“...So he makes the best of bad situations.”

“I think setting up shop in the hallway is actually making the worst of a bad situation. You know, you could solve your problem if you and your brother just stopped invading my office so frequently.”

“You’d miss us too much.”

“I would not miss you at all,” he says, which means he’s pretty much asking for what Vex does next. Besides, it’s not often that she gets to do her good deed for the day and fuck with Scanlan at the exact same time.

“Tiberius, could you come in here?” she calls over her shoulder, because it had seemed only polite to ask the guy for his name after the third time she’d nearly scattered his notes down the entire length of the hallway trying to make her way past, and after a few seconds he appears in the doorway, face all sharp angles and a startlingly deep sunburn for this late in September, “Scanlan here has just offered to share his office with you, since he’s got so much spare room.”

“Really?” Tiberius booms, like he’d never learned the concept of an indoor voice, “What a generous offer! While I do enjoy the way that the hustle and bustle of the hallway allows me to meet a lot of new people, it isn’t really an ideal office space.”

For just a second, Scanlan’s face says  _ That’s because it’s a fucking hallway _ and then he schools his expression into a sunny grin the way only he can.

“Well, we can’t have that. There’s probably some extra office equipment in the room down the hall, you should be able to find a table and a chair down there,” he says, and Tiberius beams, coming fully into the room to offer his hand to shake.

“Brilliant! I’m Tiberius Stormwind, from Draconia.”

“Scanlan Shorthalt.”

Vex waits until Tiberius leaves to speak up. “He seems nice. Maybe it won’t be so bad.”

She hasn’t even finished her sentence before the sound of him singing, not humming but  _ singing _ , from his diaphragm, the  _ Pirates of the Caribbean _ theme reaches the office, and Scanlan inhales and exhales very slowly.

“I’m going to fail you. As revenge.”

“Recitation only counts as ten percent of my final grade.”

“...I’m going to make the tiniest possible dent in your GPA. As revenge.”

Tiberius comes back with a folding table, still singing, and Scanlan presses play on the cover of  _ So Yesterday _ that they’d been listening to, cranking the volume all the way up. Vex just laughs, throwing her banana peel at him and singing along with the chorus.

\-----------

Keyleth understands why her father wanted her to minor in business. She does.  _ If you don’t take care of the business side of all this,  _ he’d said _ ,  _ gesturing around the greenhouse _ , then there won’t be any plant side to take care. _ That made sense.

What doesn’t make sense is microeconomics. Specifically, microeconomics group projects.

In the greenhouses and her horticulture classes, she felt like she knew and understood enough that she could actually talk to some of her classmates. And when that didn’t work, there were always the plants to talk to, which generally was just fine with her. Plants didn’t care if you were awkward.

And she’d managed the first two group projects by just doing them herself and avoiding the professor’s eye the day after they’d turned them in. But she’d gotten an email this morning, telling her that while her work had been fine, the  _ group  _ part of the assignment was important and she needed to find one or receive a zero on future projects.

So today, she was definitely going to make friends, starting with the boy who always sits next to her in class. He never seemed very interested in what the professor was saying, but he’d always been nice to her, the few times they’d acknowledged each other. One time there had been a surprise downpour right before class and they’d chatted about the weather for a few minutes before the professor had started lecturing, and they’d given each other commiserating looks as they’d left the classroom at the same time after their first quiz.

She waits until the professor gives them time to work in their groups, and then reaches over and sort of tugs on the guy’s sleeve as he tilts his head to talk to the person next to him. The look he gives her as he turns back says pretty clearly that this was a very weird thing to do, but she has his attention and it’s too late to change her plans now, so she takes a deep breath and forges ahead.

“Hi, I was wondering if I could join your group because… I don’t have one,” she finishes lamely, jutting out her chin a bit because her father had once told her that acting confident was at least half of actually being confident. “I’m Keyleth. Keyleth Ayr.”

“Nice to meet you, Keyleth. I’m Vax’ildan, and this is Gilmore.” The guy on his other side leaned around him to smile at her, bright white teeth against dark brown skin. “We’d love to have you.”

“Especially since Professor Fince just told us that we need to have more than two people in our group.”

“Ah, Shaun, we’d take her if we had a hundred people in the group already and you know it.”

Keyleth can’t help returning his smile.

\------------

Pike thinks that if she was any prouder of Grog she would actually burst. She knows that’s physically impossible, but it’s getting harder and harder to argue with the swelling warmth in her chest.

He has pieces in a real art show. And okay, it’s just three small floral paintings he’d done for an assignment featured in the class showcase held in their little studio space alongside everyone else’s work, but that doesn’t make it any less real or any less cool, and it certainly doesn’t diminish her pride one bit. Every time someone wanders by and compliments his work, she’s in serious danger of floating away.

“Wow, these are amazing!”

“‘Course they are. I mean, thank you,” Grog corrects, after Pike kicks him gently in the ankle.

“Really though! They’re the best in the whole show,” says the girl who’d given him the compliment, blushing when the two people with their exhibits on either side of Grog’s glare at her.

“You look familiar,” Grog says, and the girl nods happily.

“I was in the botany class you visited for inspiration. I thought since all of you came and listened to us talk about plants for an hour, the least I could do was come to the show and see what you ended up painting. I’m Keyleth,” she adds like it’s an afterthought, and Pike gets the distinct impression that she does that a lot, gets carried away with her own enthusiasm and forgets the basics. She likes her pretty much immediately because of that, especially since it kind of reminds her of Grog.

“I’m Pike, and this is my brother Grog,” she says, and Keyleth keeps smiling, although Pike can see her falter a little into a familiar expression that by now she can clearly read as _ … So one of you is adopted, right? _ It’s not like she can really blame people, since Grog is seven foot tall and she’s barely five.

“Oh, you should meet my friends! Guys, come over here,” she calls, and three people wander over towards her, “This is Pike and her brother Grog” -- three identical ... _ So one of you is adopted, right?  _ looks at the same time-- “He’s the one who did these great paintings. Grog, Pike, this is Vax and Vex” --a man and a woman that must be twins, they look so alike-- “And Tiberius” -- taller and older than the other two, with small round glasses perched so far down his nose that Pike doesn’t know how they can possibly be of any actual use to him-- “And Sc- where’s Scanlan?”

“Right here, Kiki,” says a short man in a violently purple shirt as he appears at her side as if by magic.

“Oh! This is Scanlan. Scanlan, this is Grog and his sister Pike.”

Scanlan’s face does not change one bit as he looks them over for a few moments, and then he grins enormously. “So which one of you is adopted?”

Four voices say “Scanlan!” in perfect unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the fandom already has a lot of college aus, but you know, the muse is the muse, so what can you do?
> 
> This is actually a weird extension AU of the big AU I'm working on where Cass and Percy both escape the Briarwoods and join Vox Machina ([the de Rolo siblings AU](http://awkwardspiritanimals.tumblr.com/tagged/de-rolo-siblings-fic)), but that fic is going to be very long and won't be done for quite a while, and thinking about AUs of my AUs actually helps me work on characterization, which is my excuse for this self-indulgent thing of an AU and I'm sticking to it. So Cass's presence as a legitimate member of Vox Machina in her own right separate (to a degree) from Percy's membership is a part of this universe, which is why the de Rolos get their own introduction in part 2.
> 
> These are just little introduction scenes to set up the group and work a bit on their voices, and the rest of the updates will come whenever I am inspired enough to sit down and write them and won't be chronological or ordered in really any way other than 'what I was inspired to write in that moment.' It'll be a bit of a hodgepodge honestly.
> 
> Anyway, this is the first fic I've written for Critical Role and I'm nervous that I've screwed up all their characterizations beyond recognition but I had fun writing this anyway, and I'm looking forward to writing more, both of this and the de Rolo siblings AU and also maybe one other Vex-centric thing I'm inspired for.
> 
> Also, no offense is meant to any of the majors portrayed here, particularly since my degree is in history and I have no room to talk. As far as I can tell, one of history majors' favorite pastimes in talking about how useless our own degrees will be in actually getting a job.
> 
> The title of the universe is from a Jamie Tworkowski quote, and most of the parts will probably have their own titles eventually, whenever I happen to be inspired for them. This one is from "Twin Sized Mattress" by The Front Bottoms.


	2. and when they finally made it here (it was the least that we could do to make our welcome clear)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are people sleeping in Pike and Grog's living room.
> 
> Tall people.

“I think we’re done for the night, if you want to head home,” Kima says from her spot behind the counter, and Vax looks up from the table he’s running a wet rag over, “You need a ride to campus?”

“I’m just going to crash at Pike and Grog’s, I think.” Campus isn’t really all that far from the restaurant, but it’s freezing out and late enough that he doesn’t want to bother calling Vex to come pick him up. “You sure you don’t need me to stick around and help you close?”

“I’ve got it. And Allie said she’d stop by, so she can help me if I haven’t finished by then.”

“Ah, so that’s why you’re trying to get me out the door,” Vax says, pulling his jacket off the coat tree by the door, and Kima flips him off.

“You’re fired, Vax’ildan,” she calls over the ringing of the little bell on the door, and Vax just waves over his shoulder as he ducks out. Kima fires him pretty regularly, particularly when he teases her about the owner of the bookshop down the street, but she’s either never actually meant it. Either that or she’s just decided to hire him back every time he shows up for his next shift, so Vax doesn’t really mind.

Pike had given him a key to the apartment in late October, when it had started to get colder and the eight blocks between the restaurant and campus had begun to feel much longer. They’re only a couple blocks away, in an apartment building specifically marketed towards broke college students, and they’ve got a couch that is more comfortable than it has any right to be considering the fact that Vax is pretty sure Grog had pulled it out of a dumpster.

He’s texting Vex about where he’s crashing so she won’t worry about him as he lets himself in, but stops dead once he looks up from the screen, hand still on the doorknob, because there are people sleeping in Pike and Grog’s living room. Two people, one on the couch, arm thrown over her face, and another leaning back against it, long legs stretched out in front of him. Vax is trying to figure out what the appropriate action is in this situation when he hears a familiar voice call his name and turns to see Pike and Grog coming down the hallway, Grog carrying two pizza boxes.

“I didn’t know you had the late shift, or I would have made Grog go get the food by himself.”

“Kima didn’t have anyone scheduled, so she offered me the hours if I wanted them, since I was already there.” Vax’s work schedule is absolutely not the most pressing matter at this moment. “Not to worry you or anything, but do you know the people currently sleeping in your apartment?”

Pike laughs. “That’s the de Rolos. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about them before? They lived on one of the boats I worked on a few summers back and we’ve gotten to be friends, and I told them to let me know if they were ever in Emon and needed a place to stay for a bit.” She crosses the room as Grog disappears into the kitchen with the pizza, and Vax vaguely remembers her occasionally mentioning a pair of siblings she’d met a couple years ago, although he hadn’t realized she was close enough with them to let them crash in her living room.

He watches as she crouches down next to the guy on the floor, and Pike is a generally gentle person, except when she’s roughhousing with Grog or giving Scanlan a hard time, but Vax doesn’t think he’s ever seen her move as carefully or as deliberately as she does in reaching out to touch the shoulder of the kid on the floor. It’s like she’s afraid she’ll break him with her fingertips.

The kid comes awake in one gasping motion, blue eyes open and every muscle tense, fumbling a pair of round glasses off of the floor and onto his face with the practiced ease of someone who needed to be awake and ready to move at a moment’s notice fairly often. He relaxes once his gaze focuses on Pike, then glances over his shoulder at the girl on the couch, who is rubbing at her eyes and yawning.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” he says, but Pike just shakes her head.

“You had a long drive, Percy, don’t worry about it. I just didn’t want you or Cass to miss the pizza.”

She offers him a hand up as the girl pushes her way off the couch, and the first thing Vax really notices about them is that they’re  _tall_ , and not just because they’re standing next to Pike, tall in the way that it’s probably the first thing anyone would notice about them. Cass has to tower a whole foot over Pike and Percy has to have almost that much on Vax, who is of perfectly average height but suddenly feels very short, especially when Grog ducks his head into the living room to ask what’s taking so long.

Once they’re in the kitchen, better lit than the living room, Vax can see that the two of them must be brother and sister, both all sharp angles and long limbs and blue eyes. Percy is clearly the older of the two, although he can’t be much more than twenty, and Cass looks like she’s probably still in high school. When she settles back against the counter with her pizza, Vax can see that there are two long grey streaks in her blond hair, pulled back into her braid, which would probably be the worst hair dying choice he’d ever seen if her brother didn’t just have two white blotches in otherwise dark brown hair, one just over his left temple and the other slightly right of center in the back.

“Percy, Cass, this is Vax. I’ve told you about him before, he’s the one with the twin sister,” Pike says, and Vax smiles, kind of flattered that she’d talk about him with people who didn’t actually know him. Percy sets his plate down and brushes crumbs off his hands before offering one to Vax to shake.

“Percival Frederickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the Third,” he says, and Grog actually laughs, which Pike punches him in the arm for.

“What? That’s not a joke?”

“No, that’s really the whole thing,” Cass says, offering her hand after her brother, “Cassandra Johanna Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo. But you can just call me Cass. He’s Percy.”

“Percy’s starting at Emon at semester, and I said they could crash here until they find an apartment,” Pike explains, getting herself another slice of pizza.

“You’re not living on campus?” The university has a policy that all non-local traditional students had to reside on campus, but there were lots of ways of getting around it. Pike and Grog had just had their grandfather lie for them on the forms, since they couldn’t have roomed together on campus and it was cheaper to live in an off-campus apartment anyway. The only reason the twins had chosen to live in the dorms was because the rule was a good excuse to get their father to pay for housing, at least for this year, and give them chance to save up for their own place.

“I’m Cass’s legal guardian, so I’ve got an official exemption,” Percy says, and Vax doesn’t ask why a twenty year old guy is looking after his kid sister, because with a group of friends like his you learned pretty quickly that questions about family could get uncomfortable fast. Between all of them they have exactly three living parental figures that any of them actually speak to voluntarily, Tiberius’s parents and Pike and Grog’s grandfather.

“If you need to stay, Vax, you can have Grog’s bed and he can have mine and I’ll be fine on the floor for one night,” Pike says, which draws a noise of protest from literally everyone else in the room.

“It’s really not that late, I’ll just go back to campus.”

“I can take you,” Percy says, shaking his head when Pike starts to argue, “You bought dinner, the least I can do is drive six blocks, especially since I’m the one complicating the situation. You’ll be alright?” he asks his sister, who rolls her eyes at him.

“You’ll be gone for fifteen minutes, Percival, I think I’ll survive. Plus, Pike’s here,” she says, but she sounds fond and thankful somehow, rather than exasperated, and Percy just leans in to press a kiss against her hair. Vax is struck again by how ridiculously tall they are.

He assumes they’re borrowing Pike’s car, but Percy pulls out an unfamiliar key on an Emon University lanyard, the one they give all new students in their welcome packet, once they’re outside, and leads the way towards a truck parked in one of the guest spaces at the far side of the lot.

It has to be the ugliest truck Vax has ever seen in his entire life. There are at least three different colors of paint on it, none of which are at all flattering colors and all of which are flaking off, broken up by sections of rust. One side of the bed is covered in small dents, like someone had been whacking baseballs off of it for a couple years, and he’s momentarily afraid he’ll pull the passenger side door right off when he opens it. He’s about to offer to just walk home, or at least go back up to the apartment and see if Pike will lend them her car when Percy turns the key and, rather than coughing and spitting like he’d anticipated, the engine practically purrs to life.

His surprise must show on his face, because Percy smiles as they pull out of the parking lot.

“I call it Bad News. Bought it last summer for two hundred dollars from a man who was convinced it would never run again. He could have sold it for scrap and gotten more, but I think he felt sorry for me, believing I could get it working.”

“Joke’s on him then,” Vax says, and Percy’s smile grows a little, illuminated in flashes as they pass underneath the streetlights. It catches on the white patch in front of his hair too, and Vax can’t help himself. “So, uh, your hair. That’s an interesting choice.”

For a second, he looks confused, and then he takes one hand off the wheel to touch the white spot on the back of his head. “It’s, uh, not really a choice. It grows like this.”

“Really?” he asks, and Percy nods, then glances over when Vax laughs, “Sorry, it’s just… you’re Pike’s friend, and our group has a way of making each other’s friends our own, but I wasn’t sure if I could really manage seriously being your friend if you were doing that to your own hair on purpose.”

“Oh,” is his only reply, and they ride the rest of the way in silence until Vax points out his building.

“Thanks for the ride, Percival. I guess I’ll see you around?”

“I believe you will. Pike invited Cass and I out to breakfast with you all tomorrow.”

“That’s good, means you’ll get to meet everybody except Tiberius. See you in just a few hours then,” he says, even though  _breakfast_ is a pretty loose term for their meetings, which usually take place around eleven and have been known to occasionally happen closer to dinner than anything else, but Vax figures there’s no reason the new kid needs to know that. Pike’ll fill him in.

“I look forward to it.” He sounds torn between really meaning that and being completely overwhelmed at the prospect, and Vax wonders where exactly Pike found this kid, with his weird hair and his posh manners and his shitty truck. She’s good at collecting strays though, with Grog as the primary example and the rest of their little group not all that far behind, so he trusts her.

And he can’t help but like Percy, at least the little he knows, the naming of his disaster of a truck and the looking after his sister like it’s the same thing as breathing and the fact that Pike likes him. At breakfast, Scanlan will probably grill him intentionally and Keyleth unintentionally and Vex subtly, so he’ll have a better idea tomorrow anyway, and he closes the passenger door with an alarming rattle even though he tries to be careful, waving as Percy pulls away from the curb before tugging his jacket up around his ears and heading into the building.

He’s not surprised that Vex is sleeping in the other bed in his room. He’d had a roommate for the first three weeks of school, and then the kid had moved out to live with his older brother off campus and to this point the school hadn’t bothered to assign anyone else to the room. Vex is only one floor up, but she sleeps in the empty bed a few times a week usually. Vax kicks it as he comes into the room, just enough to wake her.

“I’m home.”

“Thought you were sleeping at Pike’s?” Vex asks, only opening one eye to half-heartedly glare at him.

“She’s got guests, people she knows from one of her boats. The de Rolos?” he says, dropping his jacket on the floor and collapsing backwards onto his bed, not bothering to change his clothes.

“That sounds vaguely familiar.”

“They’re nice. Pike likes them, so,” Vax shrugs, even though Vex couldn’t see him even if it wasn’t dark, knowing that she’ll probably understand anyway, “They’re coming to breakfast tomorrow.”

There’s no answer from Vex, and Vax is pretty sure she’s fallen back asleep in the middle of their conversation, which he would mind more if she’d ever actually been fully awake during it. He kicks off his jeans and tugs his comforter up, looking forward to group breakfast and his day off tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the de Rolo siblings so much. That's not really a necessary note, but it still felt important to share, especially since the AU that spawned this AU came directly from my deep love of the de Rolo siblings.
> 
> These first two chapters are really just introductions, and future pieces will delve more deeply into the characters and their lives and their relationships. Some characters will be more heavily featured than others, just because I feel more comfortable and inspired in writing certain characters than I do others, but I promise the whole gang will be here.
> 
> I'll add character and relationship tags as they begin to appear in the story, but I don't want to put stuff up in the tags that's not a major part in the fic yet just because I know I'm always bummed when I click on a story with a tag I'm interested in and it turns out that they're not actually in there until the as-yet-unwritten chapter 15. So that will update as I write new parts.
> 
> Speaking of, the next part will most likely be one of the following: 1) Pike and Grog backstory because that's the one I've thought about and developed the most, 2) a Scanlan-centric thing about their group dinners at his apartment that jumps in the timeline significantly, looking at both Vox Machina and the various NPCs that populate their lives and the specific ways in which some of them do that, or 3) the introduction of the crappy dive bar hangout they all frequent, the Slayer's Take, and introduction of some of the NPCs within the universe, which doesn't jump the timeline quite so much. I could also get super inspired for something that is none of these and it could be something completely different. I'm unpredictable like that.
> 
> If you have any questions feel free to ask, or, uh, I guess if you already have requests for things you think you'd like to know about this universe, I guess you could go ahead with those too.
> 
> One last important note, Percival and Cassandra "Tree People" de Rolo are very important to me, and so is Vax being generally vaguely offended that these people would dare to be so tall. Like, one de Rolo hanging around, being taller than him? Fine. But two de Rolos? Hanging around? Taller than him? That's a personal attack. Also, Percy has the patches in his hair rather than it all being white because that's how his hair is in the de Rolo siblings AU I'm working on, where he and Cass both escape from the Briarwoods and join Vox Machina, so his stress is different and thus his stress induced hair is different. It's just a thing I decided to do and now I love it and I have Vax call him 'Patches' a lot and they all tease him about how Cass's streaks make her look dignified and his patches make him look like he got into a fight with a bag of flour and it went poorly.
> 
> Chapter title from the Mountain Goats' "Color in Your Cheeks," a very good and important song.


	3. only used to be you but now it's you and me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pike Trickfoot meets Grog Strongjaw on a rainy Friday in March of her fourth grade year.

Pike Trickfoot meets Grog Strongjaw on a rainy Friday in March of her fourth grade year.

Her grandpa has the afternoon shift today, so she walks to the station instead of home. Usually he would come get her, but sometimes they’re busy enough right at the end of school that he can’t get away, and since Pike is ten now, they’d agreed that she was old enough that she could walk the five blocks by herself, as long as she was extra careful crossing streets. Some days she still just waits and plays on the playground until he’s able to come get her, because she likes walking home and talking about her day with him, but today walking on her own means she gets to jump in all the puddles along the way instead of just most of them.

Wilhand Trickfoot had been an EMT for 23 years before switching over to dispatch nine years ago when Pike had come to live with him, which means she’d practically grown up at the station. Westruun wasn’t big enough to warrant a separate ambulance depot, but the EMTs and dispatchers had laid claim to the section of the fire station nearest to the garage and made it their own years ago, and it’s one of Pike’s favorite places in the entire world.

It’s more crowded than she thought it would be when she gets there. Usually if her grandpa can’t come pick her up it means that they’re busy enough that he needs to direct both ambulances on duty between calls with no breaks, but there are people from both crews standing in the little lounge area, gathered around her grandpa and a boy that Pike doesn’t know, who has a long cut underneath one eye and his arms wrapped around himself.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, just look at the kid, will you?” her grandpa says, lowering the ice pack he had pressed against his face so that Pike can see that his left eye is swollen shut, the skin around it bruised deep purple, and she elbows her way through the gathered EMTs. He smiles and then winces, reaching out to take her hand. “Hey, Pike. Sorry I couldn’t come get you at school, but Roosevelt is out sick and 14 needed a driver.”

“What happened?”

“We were out on a call and a man objected to where I’d parked the rig. This young man stepped in before things got too out of hand, although he’s a bit worse for the wear now. Wallsny, could you get me something to fix that cut for him?” Wilhand says, squeezing her hand, and his words jolt the whole station back into motion. Wallsny, who sits bucket on 14, disappears out into the garage and comes back with a kit.

“Been at this long enough that I can do it with just the one good eye,” Wilhand jokes, pulling his chair around to sit in front of the boy, who winces when he presses a piece of gauze against the cut below his eye. Pike reaches out instinctively and grabs his hand.

“You can squeeze my hand, if it hurts,” she explains when he looks confused, sitting down next to him on the couch, “I’m Pike.”

“‘M Grog,” he says after a few seconds, and he doesn’t squeeze her hand really, but he doesn’t let go either.

“Think you can look after Grog for a few minutes while I talk to a couple people?” Wilhand asks once he’s finished, and Pike nods. Once he’s disappeared into the dispatcher’s room, she turns to look up at Grog.

“Thank you for helping my grandpa,” she says, and he shrugs.

“My uncle’s a jerk.”

Pike thinks about that for a bit and then replies, “That sucks,” even though she’s not supposed to say _ sucks _ , “You want to color?”

It takes her grandpa longer than she thought, but she doesn’t mind because it turns out Grog is really good at coloring. He’s in fourth grade just like her, even though he’s eleven and a lot taller than her, and he lives with his uncle, who he doesn’t seem to like very much. He does like coloring though, and he draws big, bright, colorful shapes that Pike likes a lot. Eventually, Wilhand finishes talking to whoever it was he’d needed to speak to and comes back over, squatting down beside their drawings.

“Grog, how would you like to come home and have dinner with Pike and me tonight?” he asks, and Grog shrugs.

“That’s fine.”

“Your uncle won’t miss you?”

“Probably won’t even know I’m gone,” he says, which makes Pike sad, because everyone should have someone who misses them when they’re not there, and she decides right then that she’ll be that person for Grog, even if it’s only for a few days.

Her grandpa makes tuna and noodles and Grog eats three helpings. Afterwards, Pike teaches him to play war sitting at the kitchen table while Wilhand sits in the living room, talking to someone in the serious tone that she’s only ever heard him use at work. Pike is winning three games to two when he finally comes back in, pressing a kiss against her hair before settling into the empty chair at the table, taking a moment to stretch out his legs in front of him and roll his head from shoulder to shoulder before he speaks.

“I’ve been talking to some people about you and your uncle, Grog.”

Pike feels Grog tense beside her, and she reaches over and takes his hand like she had earlier.

“Am I in trouble?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that. It’s just… you’re going to stay with Pike and me for a couple nights, so you can to talk to some people, if that’s alright with you?”

“I guess.”

“Good. Pike, could you help him make a bed on the couch? You should both could probably use some sleep.”

Grog is quiet while they pull the extra blankets and pillows out of the hall closet, and Pike sits next to him once they’ve got the couch sit up.

“Are you sad? About not being able to go home?”

Grog shakes his head. “I’m not very good at talking to people. I don’t want to do it wrong.”

“You’ll be okay. My grandpa will help, and he usually knows the right thing to say,” she says, and Grog nods a little, but he still looks sad, and a little scared. Pike didn’t even know that people as big as he is could be scared, and she thinks hard about a way to make him feel better. “Do you want to build a blanket fort? It helps keep scary dreams away.”

It’s the best blanket fort Pike has ever seen in her whole life.

Her grandpa spends most of Saturday on the phone and leaves Pike and Grog in charge of looking after each other, which is just fine with them. They walk the three blocks to Goodwill to get him a few changes of clothes and jump into all the puddles on the way back because Grog is a good jumper and an even better splasher, and Pike teaches him all the card games she knows and then they make some up together. Wilhand makes them grilled cheese for lunch and goulash for dinner, and they explain the rules to him while he cooks. When it’s time for bed, the two of them build another blanket fort.

On Sunday they have to go into the station, and they color at the table in the lounge and Pike explains the one rule change that her grandpa makes when she’s at the station, which is that everyone has to watch their language and anyone who cusses in front of her owes her a snack from the vending machines. Roosevelt buys them breakfast for shouting  _ that means you, Casey, you fucking loudmouth piece of shit _ when he overhears her explaining the rule.

Around lunchtime, a woman in a very neat suit comes to talk to Grog for what feels like a really long time to Pike, especially since she isn’t allowed to sit with him while it’s happening. She paces up and down the hallway until her grandpa joins Grog and the lady in the little room they’re meeting in, which calms her down a little because her grandpa would never let anything bad happen to her new friend.

Wallsny brings her some lunch and plays war with her for a little while until she has to go out on a call, and Pike plays solitaire until the door opens again. The woman and Grog come out, her hand resting on one of his shoulders even though he’s almost as tall as she is, and she smiles when she sees Pike sitting there.

“Your grandpa wants to talk to you, Pike. Grog and I will wait right here,” she adds, still smiling, and Pike feels kind of bad about glaring at her.

She sits down across the table from Wilhand, feet swinging under her chair. “Is she gonna make Grog go back to his uncle? Because he doesn’t even like him. And he’s mean.”

“Well, actually, if it’s alright with you, Grog is going to come live with us. Maybe for a long time.”

Pike thinks about this for a while. “Kind of like a brother?”

Wilhand laughs. “Yes, I suppose it’ll be like having a broth-oof!” He can’t even finish his sentence before Pike is out of her chair and launching herself at him for a hug.

That night, the two of them are coloring while Wilhand makes dinner, because coloring is Grog’s favorite thing to do. As they’re putting all their stuff away so they can get ready to set the table,  he slides a piece of paper over towards her, shoulders bunched up around his ears.

“Made this for you,” he mumbles, and Pike looks down at the drawing of two figures, one much bigger than the other, who has a tangle of yellow hair.  _ Best freinds  _ is written above it in big, uneven letters.

Pike grins, stretching to press a kiss against his cheek before hopping off her chair so she can dig through the kitchen drawers to find some tape to hang it above her bed with.

\-------------

“How’s your book?” Pike asks, taking a break from her math homework to stretch her neck and rest her eyes.

“‘S fine. Written all funny, but it’s got a big dude killing monsters, which is cool. Only got a few pages left.” Grog is lying on his back on her bed, legs dangling over the end, his copy of  _ Beowulf  _ still open to his spot sitting on his chest. “How’s your math?”

“Ugh,” is all she can think of to really describe it, and Grog laughs, which sends his book tumbling to the floor.

“Shit.”

“Serves you right.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he says, twisting to retrieve the book. Once he’s righted himself, he tips his head back to look at the photos and drawings that Pike has pinned up above her bed.  _ Best freinds _ is right in the center, the only one not overlapped by anything else. “Can’t believe you’ve still got that up.”

“We’re still best friends, aren’t we?”

“Course we are. Always will be.”

“Then I’ll always have that hanging on the wall,” Pike says, and hopes Grog is as comforted by the confidence in her voice as she is by the confidence in his.

\------------------

Grog drops onto the couch, which groans under his weight, and Pike settles onto the floor, leaning back against his legs. There are still a few boxes to unpack, and even with that stuff the apartment will probably still look pretty spartan, but they have a couch and a full set of kitchen utensils and each other, so she thinks the space will feel pretty full, when all is said and done. They’re starting classes in a few day and they have an apartment all to themselves and even the air itself tastes like new beginnings.

“I’ll have to make you a new one of these, now that I’m a fancy art major,” Grog says, lifting one hand to touch the edge of the  _ best freinds _ picture where she’s taped it up above the couch.

“You can make me as many as you want and I’ll display them all, but I’m not taking that one down. At least not until you’re famous enough that I can sell your early work for millions of dollars.”

“Or until we stop being best friends.”

“Now you’re being really ridiculous. Come on, let’s go get pizza.”

“You’ve always got the best ideas.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, it should be said that this is in no way an accurate reflection of how adoption/foster care/etc. works, and also that my knowledge of EMTs is pretty much limited to basic research and two seasons of Sirens, so apologies for any glaring inaccuracies there. I wanted this to reflect sort of the spontaneity of Pike and Wilhand and Grog's coming together as a family in canon, as much as was possible within a modern setting. None of the EMTs mentioned are consciously based on anyone we've met within the Westruun canon, but they're an adorable band of misfits that will probably make appearances in other bits of Pike and Grog's backstory.
> 
> There will probably be more from this little family unit at some point in the future, but the next bit will most likely be either 1) Percy and Cass backstory or 2) the introduction of the Slayer's Take, the crappy dive bar that the group likes to hang out in. There's also an outside chance it will be Vax getting the job at Kima's restaurant/a tiny little Kima/Allura+Drake background, but that still has lots of bits I have to work out yet. Again, these will come in no particular order other than 'This is the next piece of this that is finished,' and the plot is really just 'friendship.'
> 
> Title of the chapter comes from Vitamin C by Clean Cut Kid, which is one of my very top Vox Machina songs.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Percival, Pike tells us you’ve got the evening off!”

“Percival, Pike tells us you’ve got the evening off!” Vax says, much too loudly to be considered polite in a library, but he either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about the glares being directed his way as he drops into the seat across from Percy. His sister hauls over an empty chair from the next table.

“That’s true,” Percy answers cautiously, unsure why Vax seems so excited about it and a little alarmed at the show of enthusiasm. He’s worked every Friday since he and Cass arrived in Emon, but it had been a slow week at the shop and Victor had shooed him out yesterday, telling him not to come back until his tow truck shift Saturday night.

“Excellent! That means you have to come out with us tonight. We’re going to Kima’s for dinner and then to the Slayer’s Take to get properly plastered.”

“I can’t, Vax.”

“Come on, Patches, what’s your excuse? It’s Friday, you can put off your homework for one night, and the Take sure as hell isn’t going to kick you out for being underage unless you actually try to order something alcoholic. So what’s up?”

“I’ve got a fifteen year old sister I’m responsible for, and I can’t really leave her alone so I can go out not-drinking with you all.” He figures there’s little point in making anything up, since the twins and the rest of the group are well aware of the de Rolos’ situation.

Cass is perfectly capable of looking after herself and often does, but Percy still feels guilty about it, about how much time she spends in an empty apartment or stuck at the library with him while he studies or in the shop’s tiny waiting room, drinking Victor’s terrible coffee and doing her homework, and he doesn’t want to sacrifice the time he does get to spend with her. He figures if anyone would understand having a sister, the responsibility of that, it’s Vax.

The other man considers this for a few seconds before he shrugs and says, “Bring her along.”

“You want me to bring my little sister along to the dive bar with us?”

“The Slayer’s Take isn’t that bad,” Vex says, “There usually aren’t any students except for us, because it’s not very close to campus, and the regulars don’t want to be bothered or bother anyone else.  And on the off-chance someone did try to cause trouble concerning Cass, there’ll be a whole line of people waiting to smear them across the floor.”

“She’s probably more fun than you anyway,” Vax adds, which makes Vex laugh even as she elbows her brother in the side, “So what do you say?”

“I’ll have to ask Cassandra,” he answers after a few seconds, still a little stunned by the whole conversation, and is met with matching smiles from the twins.

“Perfect! We’ll see you tonight then. I’ll let you know what time we’re meeting at the restaurant,” Vax says, and then they’re up and away from the table, Vex waving at him over her shoulder, before he can protest that his answer hadn’t been a definite  _ yes _ .

With a sigh, he pulls out his phone and texts Cass.

_ The twins have invited us out with the group this evening _ .

**Both of us?** she sends back a few minutes later.

_ Yes  _ and then  _ We don’t have to go. We can just get pizza and go home, like we’d planned. _

**We sound so lame when you put it like that. You don’t want to go?**

_ I just _ , Percy types, and then isn’t sure what he was going to say. He genuinely does like them,  this little group who seem to have claimed him and his sister as their own with somewhat startling enthusiasm, but he’s still not sure quite what to make of it all. It’s just been him and Cass for a while now, and he’s still trying to get used to the idea of having people again, after what happened and everything that came after.

_ I just don’t want you to feel like we have to. It’s just dinner at Kima’s and drinks at the Take. _

It’s a few minutes before he gets a reply:  **They want me to come to the bar with them?**

_ I think they might like you more than me. _

**Not hard to believe** , she sends back before he can finish his next message, and he tacks  _ Haha.  _ on to it in front of  _ Vex pretty much volunteered everyone to fight for your honor if necessary. _

**That’s flattering enough that I think we have to go, even if it didn’t sound like it would be fun.**

\-------------

“You’re allowed to have fun,” Cassandra says, turning in her seat to look at Percy. He tries to pick her up from school on the days he doesn’t have work or classes; sometimes it’s the only chance they actually get to talk for the entire day.

“I have fun.”

Cass scoffs, “Working at Victor’s doesn’t count. Just because you like fixing cars doesn’t mean it’s not still your  _ job _ . And when’s the last time you got to work on Bad News?”

“Bad News doesn’t need any work, it’s perfect,” he says, finally able to turn right and escape from the terrible after-school traffic.

“Seriously, Percival, you’re twenty, not a hundred and twenty.”

“You just want an excuse to go out with everyone.”

“I just don’t want to be your excuse for not hanging out with our friends on your day off,” Cass says, all the teasing is suddenly gone from her voice, and Percy glances over at her. She’s leaning her head against the window, fiddling with one of the zippers on her backpack.

“Cass, you know it’s not like that.”

“If you didn’t have to worry about me, what would you be doing tonight? Hell, where would you be right now?”

_ Six feet under _ . The thought is so immediate and sharp that Percy is afraid for a second that he’d actually said it out loud, but Cass is still staring out the window. He pulls to a stop at a red light and rests his head back against his seat for a few seconds before he speaks.

“The only time I’ve ever regretted my decision is when I haven’t been the big brother you deserve. Otherwise I’ve only ever been glad you’re here, and I don’t know where I’d be if you weren’t, but I don’t think it would be anywhere good, Cassandra.”

“You’re a good big brother,” Cass says after a few minutes of silence, rubbing at her nose.

“Even if I take my sister out to the bar with our friends?” he asks, and she brightens almost immediately, “You should text Vax, ask what time we’re meeting at the restaurant.”

Even if Percy didn’t actually want to go himself, the smile on his sister’s face would be worth it.

\---------

The Slayer’s Take is apparently just a few blocks from Kima’s, and Vex bumps her shoulder against his as they walk.

“Having fun yet?” she asks, grinning, and Percy can’t help but return it.

Dinner had been… well, it had been loud, mostly, but fun too, two tables shoved together with all of them crowded around and all talking at once, stealing food off each other’s plates.  Kima had fired Vax twice and threatened to kick Scanlan out at least five times, but she had said she’d see them next week as they were leaving and reminded Vax of his shift the next day, so Percy figured that she wasn’t actually as annoyed by them as she seemed.

“I think I am. Even if you only invited me so that Cass would come,” he answers, nodding towards where his sister is walking a little ahead of them, talking to Grog, and Vex leans into him again, a bit harder this time.

“Completely untrue. You think Vax and I voluntarily enter the library for just anyone?”

“Besides, if they’d only wanted to invite Cass, they could have just texted her in the first place. They wouldn’t have even needed to bother you,” Pike says from Vex’s other side, and Vex laughs, looping her arm through Pike’s and then surprising Percy by doing the same with him.

“Exactly, darling. You’re just going to have to accept that we like you at this point.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he says, as Vax pulls open the door of a small brick building with  _ The Slayer’s Take  _ stenciled straight onto the wall in black. It has the look of a place that decided a long time ago that the kind of customers who would be scared off by its appearance weren’t really customers it was interested in having.

“Kashaw! Greetings!” Tiberius calls as they walk into the building, and Percy is pretty sure that the guy behind the bar actually sighs when he looks up at them.

“Oh, joy,” he says, coming over to the table they all settle around to pass out coasters.

“One of these days, Kash, you’re going to have to admit that you actually like us,” Vax says with a grin, which Kashaw meets with the most deadpan expression Percy has ever seen.

“Unlikely. Hey, Keyleth, what’s up?”

“Not much,” Keyleth answers, and Percy thinks she might be blushing.

“Cool.” And then he nods a couple times and retreats behind the bar to polish more glasses. No one else says anything about it, so Percy doesn’t either, but he and Cass exchange a look that must give them away, because Vax laughs.

“That’s Kashaw. He was a TA for a religious studies class that met before mine and Kiki’s econ class last semester, and we’d chat sometimes. He’s the one who told us about the Take in the first place.”

“Technically he invited Keyleth out for a drink and the rest of us crashed that invitation because she was nervous,” Vex says, which makes Keyleth blush again, and she’s about to continue when someone calls “Vex’ahlia!” from the bar and she practically throws herself off her stool to hug someone making their way towards the table.

The embrace is so enthusiastic that it takes Percy a few seconds to realize he knows the other person, having been introduced to Zahra a few weeks ago while he was eating lunch with Pike and Vex. It’s the long white braid that gives her away, especially since she and Vex had spent a good five minutes that day teasing him about the white in his own hair while Pike tried to control her giggling.

“It’s good to see you again, Percival,” she says, once she’s leaned back from Vex a bit, “And who is this young lady?”

“That’s Cassandra, Percy’s younger sister. We only invited him out so she would agree to come,” Vex says, winking at him, and Percy can’t help the little indignant noise he makes in response. The rest of the table laughs, and it seems somehow to light up the entire dingy space of the bar.

“Nice to meet you, Cassandra. I see you’ve got the same taste in hairstyles as your brother and me,” she says, flipping her braid over her shoulder and laughing when both Cass and Percy reach up to touch the lighter parts of their own hair, “So what’s everyone drinking?”

Zahra doesn’t write anything down, but she doesn’t get any of their orders wrong as far as Percy can tell, although it’s possible that nobody bothers to complain because alcohol is alcohol at this point. Grog, Scanlan and Vax seem particularly intent on getting completely plastered, and Cass gets roped into acting as the judge for whatever drinking game they’ve decided on, drinking her Shirley Temple and laughing at the three of them as they get progressively drunker. Keyleth takes her drink over to the bar to talk to Kash, and Percy ends up in a conversation with Tiberius about his current film project. He’s not sure what it’s about, mostly because Tiberius doesn’t really seem to have a firm idea of it himself, and just as he’s running out of reasonable questions to ask, Vex pulls him over to play darts with her.

“Pike is terrible completely sober, so it’s really no contest now,” she explains as they watch Pike take her turn. Only one of her three darts actually hits the board.

“How are you sure I’ll be any better?”

“You pretty much have to be,” Pike says, looking perfectly pleased to stop playing and sit at the table with her beer to watch the two of them instead.

“And even if you aren’t, at least I’ll have the chance to beat someone else instead of just beating Pike for the third time,” Vex says, handing over the darts she’d collected from the floor.

They split four games, because Vex is very good but she’s also drunk enough that between turns she leans against Pike, the two of them laughing and heckling Percy as he throws. He doesn’t mind, since Pike is equally enthusiastic about teasing Vex when it’s her turn, and is just thankful he’s holding his own.

Vex is downing the rest of her beer while he resets the scoreboard so they can play again when there’s a commotion at their table, which turns out to be Scanlan drunkenly attempting to stand on his stool as Vax and Keyleth, equally drunk, try to keep him from falling. Grog is laughing so hard he’s in danger of falling off his own stool.

“Scanlan trying to put on a concert by himself is usually our cue to leave,” Pike says, climbing down from her stool and steadying herself with a grip on Percy’s elbow.

“Unless it’s karaoke night, because then he’d have started a long time before this,” Vex adds.

“They have karaoke night here?”

“Absolutely. Okay, guys, I think it’s time to go home.” Pike has to raise her voice a bit to be heard, and she’s met with groans from most of the group, but none of them argue with her. Between Tiberius and the de Rolos, who are sober, and Pike and Vex, who are tipsy but certainly less drunk than the other four, they manage to get everyone outside without any property damage or physical injury. Vex stops to hug Zahra goodbye, and Keyleth babbles drunkenly at Kash, who surprisingly almost looks like he might find it endearing.

“Does everyone have a plan to get home? Anyone need a ride?” Tiberius asks.

“You still okay with us crashing at yours, Pike?” Vax slurs, leaning on his sister for support, and Pike nods.

“Then I’ll bid you all good night.”

It sounds easy enough, to make it the relatively few blocks to Pike and Grog’s apartment, but it turns out to be pretty challenging almost immediately, particularly for the drunker members of the party.

“Pike, you know that I would-I would walk five hundred miles for you, and then, after that, you- I would walk five hundred more. But your apartment is so far away from here. From this spot where I’m standing, your apartment is-is-is very far away,” Scanlan says, after the fourth time he’s tripped over his own feet.

“Our apartment’s two blocks closer,” Percy says without really thinking about it, and the group sort of lurches to a stop.

“I vote for that,” Vax slurs after a few seconds.

“Closer is better,” Vex adds, and Keyleth nods and then immediately seems to regret it a lot.

“We don’t have a lot of furniture,” Cass says, which is true. Other than the cheap bed frames in their respective bedrooms, they’ve only got the card table they eat at and their couch, which is barely longer than a loveseat.

“Really any horizontal surface will do at this point, I think.”

“Hell, I’d take a verti- verti- verti-macallit surface right now,” Scanlan says, which makes Grog laugh hard enough that he almost falls over.

“You guys don’t have to,” Pike says, voice slurring a bit, “The longer walk might do us all some good.”

“We don’t mind, if most of you are alright sleeping on the floor.”

“Again, any horizontal surface will do. I’d lie down on this sidewalk right now if it wasn’t so fucking cold.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Scanlan says, drawing a soft, ragged cheer from the group, drunk and tired and happy.

Under normal circumstances it probably would have taken about five minutes to reach their apartment, but it ends up taking the better part of twenty, because even if the de Rolos are sober and Pike and Vex are less drunk than the others,  _ less drunk _ is still  _ drunk _ and puts them at a disadvantage as far as herding the other four in the correct directions as they walk.

Once they’re finally inside, everyone seems at least somewhat capable of taking care of themselves, which Percy is extremely grateful for. He’s never exactly had a normal sleep schedule, and it’s only gotten worse since everything happened and even more so since they got to Emon, between school and work and friends and everything else that crops up when you’re twenty years old and responsible for yourself and your sister. But it’s two in the morning and he’s exhausted, with the late tow truck shift staring him in the face, so he’s glad that all he has to do to help people settle in is to show Vex and Pike where the glasses are and pull the extra blankets to drape over Keyleth, who has collapsed face first on the couch, feet sticking out over the armrest.

He sticks his head into Cass’s room, where she’s already half asleep, Slinger curled up by her feet.

“That was fun,” she says, and Percy  _ hmms _ in response, which draws a sleepy huff of exasperation from his sister, “Remember, you’re allowed to have fun, Percival.”

“I remember, Cassandra, I promise. You should get some sleep,” he responds, and Cass nods, burrowing deeper in her blankets.

He goes through his nightly routine mechanically, nodding off against the sink with his toothbrush jammed into one cheek, and crawls into bed without bothering to get underneath any of his blankets, too tired to bother. Even closed in his own room, the apartment still feels full and warm, the way that the Take had when they’d all laughed, the way Kima’s had as they all picked food off each other’s plates and everyone talked at once.

Percy thinks, as he drifts off, that he might actually be able to get used to this.

\-------------

“Where did you get eggs?”

The apartment is full of people, and Percy, in the cold light of day, isn’t exactly sure how to deal with that, so he’s focusing on the fact that Cass is sitting at the kitchen table eating scrambled eggs, even though neither of the de Rolos are morning people and he’s certain that the only breakfast appropriate items they have in the house are chocolate chip granola bars and coffee.

“The Food Mart a couple of blocks from here. One dozen for forty-nine cents, it was in the paper a couple days ago,” Vex says, leaning against the counter with both hands wrapped around her coffee mug.

“She has a photographic memory for savings,” Pike explains, cracking a few more eggs into a bowl and scrambling them with a fork.

“We all have our talents. One of mine is the ability to feed eight people for three dollars.”

Percy can’t help smiling as he pours himself some coffee, leaning against the counter next to Vex. Everyone else seems to still be asleep, although he’s just assuming that Vax and Keyleth are probably somewhere under the pile of blankets and coats spilling off the couch onto the floor next to it. Grog, for some reason, is sprawled out underneath the kitchen table and Scanlan, for reasons even more unfathomable, is curled up on top of it.

A month and a half ago, he and Cass had loaded everything they owned, which wasn’t a lot, into the bed of Bad News and driven to Emon, where they knew exactly one person, and now there are people-  _ friends _ \- all over their apartment, sleeping off a night out like it’s completely ordinary, and Percy’s not entirely sure how that happened.

Vex surprises him out of his thoughts by pushing up onto her tiptoes to press her lips against his cheek, lightning quick. She smiles when he blinks at her in shock.

“Thank you for letting us take over all the flat surfaces in your apartment last night.”

“You’re welcome. It’s not really- we had the room.” This is, of course, a ridiculous thing to say with Scanlan sleeping in the middle of his kitchen table, but he’s sort of flustered by the kiss most immediately and the overall situation in general.

“I want to thank you for letting them crash here because it means I didn’t have to deal with them in my apartment,” Pike says, but Percy can hear the way she’s smiling even with her back to them as she fills two plates, moving to set them on the table before coming to a stop in front of him, looking up at him expectantly. It takes a few seconds for Percy to figure out what it is she wants, but then he leans down to lessen the considerable difference in their heights so that she can kiss him as well, stretching to press her lips firmly against his temple, right beneath the white patch in his hair, lingering for just a moment as he steadies her with a hand at her waist.

And it’s…  _ something _ , warm and soft, Vex’s hip right next to his against the counter, Pike’s hand on her shoulder as she leans up into him. It’s been so long since he’s had anything that felt like this outside of Cassandra, felt like home or family, that it’s all a bit overwhelming, and Percy can feel his breath beginning to hitch in his chest, doesn’t know how he can possibly explain to them the way his instincts are all screaming at him to twitch away from them, from all of this, because it’s too much and too fast and yet somehow not enough at the same time and-

Then Pike swipes his coffee right out of his hand as she leans back away from him, grinning as she takes a long drink. Vex laughs, taking a seat at the table, pushing Scanlan’s feet further away from one of the plates Pike had left there. The still sleeping man makes a noise of protest, trying to roll further away, except he runs out of table about halfway through the turn and crashes to the ground with a thud that makes Percy’s bones ache for a moment.

“Ow,” he groans, “Shit. Fuck. Ow.”

Grog stirs underneath the table, hands coming up the clutch at his head a few seconds after his eyes open. Slinger, lying across Cass’s feet, scrambles up to crawl into Grog’s lap, who buries his face in the dog’s ruff immediately.

“That you, Scanlan?”

“It sure is, Grog.”

“Let’s make a deal: I’ll kill you, you kill me.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

“No mutual murder pacts, boy,” Vex says, “At least not before coffee.”

“Speaking of,” Pike says, setting a full mug down in front of Scanlan’s face where he’s still lying on the floor.

“Pikey, you always give me the nicest things. Let’s get married and go live on an island far from the cares of man.”

“I’ve got a biology test on Tuesday,” Pike says, not looking up from where she’s turned back to dishing up more eggs, “And no jokes about helping me study, please. People are trying to eat.”

“There’s food?” Vax asks, trying to struggle his way out of the blankets. He gives up after a few moments, collapsing back onto the floor with a groan, “It feels like something burrowed through my brain and then died in my mouth.”

“Please don’t talk about it,” Keyleth groans, red hair everywhere as she pushes up from the couch, shoving even more blankets onto Vax, “Someone describing what it feels like somehow makes it worse.”

“Food will soak up the alcohol. Or the pain. Or something,” Scanlan says, having finally gotten up off the floor and accepted a plate of eggs from Pike.

“That’s why you can’t help me study for my biology test,” Pike laughs, dishing up plates for Vax and Keyleth as they stumble over, leaning on each other for support.

Percy retreats from the kitchen slowly once everyone has sort of settled in, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible until he can escape to his room and sink down onto his bed, burying his hands in his hair, curling down over his knees. He’ll be okay, he will, if he can just have a few seconds to himself to close his eyes and breathe, to remind himself that he doesn’t have to be terrified of this.

“Are you alright?” someone asks, and Percy startles, not sure how long he’s been sitting here, looking up to see Keyleth standing in the doorway. She’d obviously tried to do something to actually tame her hair and then given up and thrown it into a high ponytail, slightly off-center.

“I’m fine,” he says, trying to smile, but she just gives him a look, and he must be worse off than he thought, if he can’t even lie well enough to fool Keyleth of all people. She crosses the room and sits next to him on the bed, although she leaves a good foot of space between them.

“I’m sorry, I know we can be a bit overwhelming, especially all together like this.”

“It’s not- well, no, it is that, exactly so, but it’s not really your fault. It’s just been Cass and me since-” He cuts himself off there. They all know that he is Cass’s legal guardian and that they don’t have any other family they can turn to, but nothing beyond that. “For a while now, it’s just been the two of us, and I’m still… adjusting, I suppose.”

Keyleth considers this for a while before she awkwardly but gently reaches over and pats him on the elbow a few times. It’s awkward but heartfelt, and Percy can’t help but appreciate it.

“If it makes it any easier, we’re all glad you’re here. At least, I am, and I think the others are too. They just have strange ways of expressing it sometimes, which has a lot more to do with them than it does you and Cassandra.”

Percy laughs, and he doesn’t think he’s ever seen anyone look as pleased as Keyleth does at that reaction. “Thank you, Keyleth. Truly.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes until Keyleth clears her throat awkwardly.

“I don’t want to rush you or anything, but Grog will actually eat all the eggs, so if you want breakfast…” she trails off before brightening, “Oh, I could bring you some in here if you want!”

Percy, overwhelmed and off-balanced as he feels, can’t possibly stomach sitting in his room alone and eating eggs while his friends hang out in his kitchen. It’s too much, even for him, and he pushes off his bed and offers Keyleth a hand up.

“I think my parents would be disappointed in what a terrible host I’m being right now,” he says, and Keyleth’s face does something strange. For a second he’s afraid she’s going to ask about his family, and then he’ll really have to hide in here, possibly forever, but after a few moments she just smiles and accepts his help up.

Percy can hear the others out in the kitchen, Cass’s laugh layered over their voices, and he reminds himself that this is something he’s allowed to want, something he’s allowed to  _ have _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First things first, I certainly did not make it as clear as I thought I had in the first chapter that, with the exception of Tiberius, none of Vox Machina are quote unquote traditional students, in that they graduated from high school in the spring and then started college the next fall. All of them, for various reasons (mostly relating to money, but there's plenty of family stuff in there too), put off attending college (or graduate school, in Scanlan's case) for a few years, which is why all of them except for the de Rolos can legally drink. The twins and Keyleth are 21/22, Pike and Grog are 22/23, Tiberius is in his mid-20s and Scanlan is in his late 20s. The only ones I've definitively nailed down are Percy and Cass, because I had to in determining their ages relative to each other and the rest of their siblings; Percy turned 20 a few weeks before this chapter takes place, and Cass is 15, so there's about four and a half years between them.
> 
> Speaking of Percy and Cass, there's a lot more coming for them (probably predictable, since this is based on my de Rolo siblings AU), particularly in their backstory chapter (which is probably up next as far as this story goes), but I suppose the most important thing to note here is that so much of their relationship in canon is so wrapped up in their guilt that even in this and the de Rolo siblings AU, there's still a lot of guilt that infects their relationship and they have to work through: Percy worries that he's not a very good big brother a lot, and Cass feels like she's a burden keeping Percy from doing what he actually wants.
> 
> If you're wondering who Slinger is, well, uh, let me ask you, what two kids in the universe deserve a Good Dog more than Percival and Cassandra de Rolo? Slinger is a border heeler mix and a Very Good Dog, and he switches off sleeping in Percy and Cass's rooms every night and Grog takes him out running pretty much every morning and sometimes Vex takes him when she's working in various parks in Emon and Vox Machina loves this Good Dog and this Good Dog loves them.
> 
> Also, if you are like 'Zoe, this seems like maybe you might be trying to hint at Pikeval'ahlia but you're not very good at hints, to the point that you have to write a note about it?' then congratulations, you got it in one. That's the only endgame ship thing I've got in mind, because once again, the plot of this pic is really just 'friendship.'
> 
> Uh, these notes are getting very long very quickly, so I'll leave off there, except to say that I've titled the past three chapters, if that's the sort of thing you're into checking out. If you've got questions, feel free to ask!


End file.
